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The Chicago Fire's run to the fifth and historic US Open Cup victory ended tonight at the hands of DC United in the south suburbs. The Fire did start off well. They had a majority of the chances in the first half. The best of which was an Alex header of a cross from Patrick Nyarko into the hands of DC keeper Joe Willis.
It wouldn't last, however. In the minute, Joel Lindpere was forced to come on for Patrick Nyarko who was subbed out for Joel Lindpere with what was described aby head coach Frank Klopas as a head injury. And with Nyarko off and Lindpere on, the Fire's attack became stagnant and predictible, leaving DC open to take the game in hand. And take it they did with a pair of goals.
Goal number one was as uncharacteristic a mistake from Sean Johnson as the mistake in Olympic qualifying. While going up for what should have been an easy capture in the 44th minute, Luis Silva positioned himself under the ball, and got there before Johnson did, giving him the right to the space. The ball hit both Sean's hands and Silva's head at the same time, causing the ball to bounce away from both and into the path of Dwayne DeRosario. DeRo passed the ball into the empty net, and put DC up 1-0.
"Looking back at it, I probably should have just punched through it, but I thought I got a good jump," Johnson said.post game. "There was a little bit of contact maybe, him, me and the ball. I should have just punched it away, I should have done better."
The second goal was not just unfortunate, but downright cruel. Nick DeLeon received a pass from James Riley, split past Austin Berry and shot a ball that was deflected by Joel Lindpere into the back of the net.
In all the negativity, there was a slight positive. Juan Luis Anangano debuted for the Men in Red. His fitness and reaction time weren't up to par yet, but he was able to make a few plays, and was able to win most if not all of the balls hit to him. That's a good sign, especially if the Fire want to not see their playoff hopes diminish- something made harder if indeed Patrick Nyarko is out for a period of time. The Fire will try to get back to winning on Saturday back at Toyota Park against Le Impact de Montreal.